When the Car Stops Charging for No Reason: What We Discovered Thanks to a “Smart” Charger
We recently had an interesting situation at one of our users’ locations that reminded us once again how much time, nerves – and electricity – smart systems can save.
Our user was charging a BMW plug-in hybrid, but every now and then something very unusual happened: charging would start normally and then – without any pattern – simply stop. Sometimes the car would charge for half the night without any problems, and sometimes charging would stop completely after just half an hour.
Because our charger is a smart charger, we were able to look at the logs and real-time data very quickly and find out what was actually going on.
We found that the cause was a voltage drop in the electrical installation. When too many consumers were switched on at the location and the total load increased, the voltage would drop below the level the BMW tolerates – and the car would simply stop charging without any further explanation.
Interestingly, we tested the same situation with a Tesla. As soon as it noticed the voltage drop, it automatically sent a notification to the user, reduced the current and adapted to the situation on its own, without interrupting the charging.
This situation shows perfectly how different the approaches of different manufacturers can be.
BMW is an automotive giant with decades of experience, but Tesla – although a much younger company – shows how far technology and smart control can go when it comes to user experience.
In the same way, it was exactly this “intelligence” in our charger that allowed us to find the cause of the problem within just a few minutes and inform the user right away.
Had they been using a classic, “non-smart” charger, finding the cause would have been almost impossible – and the frustration would probably have lasted for days, ending with the conclusion that “the charger doesn’t work”.
Smart chargers are not just a trend – they are a tool that brings safety, control and insight into what is really happening “behind the scenes”.
Thanks to them, even when charging doesn’t go according to plan, the solution is just a few clicks away.
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